Thanksgiving of 2003
by Breesecretdaughter
Summary: How Luke and Lorelai could have gotten together in season three.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing. ASP and WB, etc, etc own everything. I just enjoy writing for my own pleasure (and possibly yours). I make no monetary profit.**

**Much of this dialogue was borrowed from episode 3x09 and I do not own it. However, I needed to use it to introduce the AUish story I plan to write. After this chapter, there will be very minimal ASP words used.  
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A GILMORE GIRLS STORY  
**Thanksgiving of 2003**  
by: Breesecretdaughter  
_July 20, 2012_

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"Hey. Anywhere?" Lorelai greeted.

"Anywhere," Luke confirmed.

"Hmm. Would you mind moving?" Lorelai asked to two of Luke's customers because he told her she could sit wherever she wanted.

"I hate when you do that," Luke told her as he walked out from behind the counter.

"It's my showstopper!" Lorelai insisted.

Luke placed his right arm around her upper back and clarified, "an _empty_ table."

His hand drifted to her lower back as he walked her to the nearest table.

"Ahh," Lorelai feigned not understanding what he meant.

"You ready to order?" Lorelai asked Rory. Luke's hand lost contact with the small of her back.

"Don't bother," he interrupted. "Saw you coming. Already ordered your Wednesday usual: the French dip, extra fries, the every Wednesday cherry pie."

"Such service," Rory smiled.

"And such a food rut we're in," Lorelai added. She sat down and took off her coat. Luke noticed how she flipped her hair.

"I got to get back to stuffing my turkey."

"Oh honey – do you have time to do that and prep Thanksgiving food?" Lorelai joked and grabbed his hand.

"Stop it," Luke groaned.

"Hear, hear," said Rory.

"It's a tedious job," Luke complained while Lorelai smiled up at him.

"Well, what if we told you could stuff one less?" Lorelai suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"We just got jammed. Shanghaied by my mother and with the other things we have going on…well..too many commitments, not enough us," Lorelai explained.

"So?"

"We can't make it tomorrow," Rory frowned.

"Oh. Okay. Fine…" Luke shrugged off his disappointment, which did not go unnoticed by Rory and Lorelai.

"It was beyond our control," Lorelai tried to make him feel better.

"That's fine. Whatever. I'll be right back."

"Kay.."

As Luke walked away, Lorelai's jaw dropped slightly. "Uhm –okay. I may be crazy, but he almost looked— "

"Disappointed," Rory finished.

"Yes, disappointed. We disappointed Luke!"

"I didn't think it was possible."

"Our powers are greater than we know," Lorelai realized.

"He actually likes it when we come for Thanksgiving! All these years and we never knew."

"He's the Grinch and we're Cindy Lou Who."

"So, Cindy Lou, what do we do?" Rory asked.

"I got it."

Lorelai flipped her phone open and pretended to talk with her mom. "Okay- perfect. That works great. Okay, bye now."

Luke came by with her food. She told him, "Sorry. I'm just clarifying our schedule for tomorrow. As luck has it, we can make it. We'll definitely be here."

"It's okay," Luke sighed. He didn't want her to feel like she had to come. After Lorelai insisted that she wanted to come because their dinner times would work out fine. She promised him it wouldn't be a hassle.

"We're coming! Now go away and let us eat," she shooed him away by pressing her hand into his chest and swatting him away. Lorelai grinned, satisfied, as he walked away.

"That was very nice," Rory told her.

"Well, I hate disappointing people," she stated while looking at Luke.

During her conversation with Rory about how they could handle eating four Thanksgiving dinners because they were Olympic eaters, she was thinking about Luke.

She thought of the way he gently manoeuvred her to her table with his strong hand. She grabbed his hand in hers while making a dirty joke – one of the many ways she flirted with him. She realized it before but sitting there, it really dawned on her how much she cared for Luke. She felt badly for disappointing him – or almost disappointing him – when she said they weren't coming. She hated the look on his face because it made her feel guilty. She wanted him to have a good Thanksgiving. She would have done that for any of her friends, right? Right?

Now she was really thinking.

_Would I have done that for anyone else? She thought._

Probably for her good friends but with Luke, it was different. Lorelai looked up at him as he wiped down the tables and her stomach fluttered. She battered her eyelashes and quickly looked down when he almost made eye contact with her.

_Uh oh, Lorelai, she thought._

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